Heavy metal determination in roadside soils and highway dust from the major highways of İstanbul

Abstract

Overland transportation is the most widespread solution to the conveyance of humansand goods. However, many environmental issues and problems are being developed as aresult of these activities and have to be seriously considered. One of the most important problems is the heavy metal pollution generated by highway traffic.Most common heavy metals found in environment near areas with intense traffic ofvehicles are Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr and Cd. These metals are released to the environment throughdifferent mechanisms such as emissions from fuel burning, abrasions and leakage from the parts of vehicles. This study aims to determine the level of heavy metal pollution through theAnatolian District of city of Istanbul. For 20 critical points in highway intersections scatteredaround the city, surface soil, 20 cm deep soil and highway dust samples were collected.Selected heavy metals were determined by "EPA 3050 Soil Digestion Method" and AtomicAbsorption Spectrophotometry (AAS). Data were evaluated by GIS programs to comment onthe overall pollution through the peninsula. Also a portion of the O = 1 highway, which wasthe most polluted among others, was handled for detailed investigation with elementalanalysis experiments to determine soil properties for interpreting better results. The resultswere given by GIS maps and statistical graphs together with useful comments to determinethe severity of problem.